January 2021 Newsletter
Dear HSA McKinley Park Families,


Third quarter is off to a great start! By now, your child should be able to have comfortable routines and systems in place with our e-Learning program. Weekly, you should be reviewing your child’s work, work habits, and behavior online. Constantly checking your child’s grades daily/weekly through the parent portal through Concept SIS will make a great impact on your child’s grades and motivation. If you need your username and password, please contact the front office for this information. Hopefully there should be no surprises about your child’s academic performance at mid-year and/or the end of the quarter. We are planning to send out 2nd quarter report cards and Honor Roll certificates this week. We are also sending letters to students who have an excessive amount of absences. Please make sure your child attends class regularly otherwise they may be at risk of failing the school year.  

In the month of February we recognize the central role of African Americans in American history. As we celebrate this month, it is helpful to keep in mind the contributions made by all ethnic groups but more importantly African Americans. At HSA we strive to always educate our students about different cultures and celebrate diversity. Please help us celebrate Black History month!

As we approach the months of February and March we will continue to update you regularly on our decision to open the school safely and effectively. More information will be shared with you next month.  

Serving you,


Mr. Vedziovski
2245 W. Pershing Rd. Chicago, IL 60609
(O) 773.247.8400 | (F) 773.247.8401
Operated by Concept Schools
Equity Committee Presents:
The HSA McKinley Park Equity Committee organized The "Woke Student: A Seminar" Assemblies for our students. Spear headed by Ms. Martin, we kicked off the new year by creating a platform to facilitate conversations about Racism, Prejudices and Privilege. This first set of presentations are the first of a three part series. Ms. Martin and the Equity team were able to present to all students in each grade level. We are happy to report that the feedback from students was positive! We loved how engaged and involved our students were in each assembly. These important topics and issues are not easy to talk about but the main goal of the HSA McKinley Park Equity committee is to start having these conversations and making an action plan on how to combat these issues. We also want to continue making HSA McKinley Park a great environment for our students to grow overall as socially aware individuals so that they can contribute to our society with kindness and equity.
ACTIVITIES FOR ALL
HSA McKinley Park launched fun- filled, virtual after school activities for our students and STAFF for the New Year! Our hope is that these activities help our community relax and destress. The program includes a variety of options cater to everyone; nutrition, Art and Yoga! So far we have seen a great interest from our students and are happy we can provide such fun activities for them! 2021 is looking bright for our HSA Hawk Family!
This Month's Podcast:
Special Education Services
This month's Community Connections podcast featured Our Special Education Department. Our guest speakers, Ms. Erickson-Concept Schools, Director of SPED and Case Management and Ms. Chavez-HSA McKinley, Intervention Specialist joined us in discussion. We are happy to have this platform to showcase to our school community important programs and services we have in place for our students. It was a great conversation to get to know our program a little more in depth and to shine the light on just how hard our whole SPED department continues to work for our students. We wanted to express our gratitude to our guests for taking the time to sit down with us and answer all of our questions. Please click on the link below to see our awesome interview with them:
Who Wants to be a Math-O-Naire
Virtual Edition
HSA McKinley Park's high school Math department organized, " Who wants to be a Math-o-naire" virtual Style. 8th to 12th grade students were able to participate as "contestants" on a game show with a live audience virtually! Students had to sign up prior to the competition and were raffled picked to compete on game day. A big shout out to our Math teachers for creating and motivating our students to have fun while learning math and use different strategies such as problem solving, critical thinking and logical reasoning. Our students enjoyed this contest so much last year and we are thrilled our Math Department still continued to provide this fun learning experience virtually.
Congratulations to all of our winners! Especially to:

Yunus Kazimli-Grand Prize- Dell Chromebook

Nicolas Roacho: $90 Amazon Gift Card
PTO ZOOM MEETING
Our PTO Monthly Zoom meetings are back on! Even though the December meeting was canceled we were excited to see many of our parents participate in this month's meeting. Our parents gave PTO great ideas to work on and keep busy. The main goal behind these meetings is to hear from our parents and to see what they would like to do! We are very hopeful for 2021 and want it to be a great year for our families. PTO will work hard to incorporate as many of our annual events as possible, especially with Spring time coming around the corner.
Save the Date for PTO's next meeting on February 16th at 4pm via zoom!
NWEA WINTER TESTING
That's a wrap! We have successfully administered the NWEA Winter testing for our K-8th grade students. A big part of our success is the cooperation of all of our parents for keeping up with our testing schedule. Thank you to all of our families for your continued support and flexibility. We are so happy to have such a strong HSA Family!
SAT PREP CLASSES HAVE BEGUN!
We are pleased to announce that our supplemental SAT classes for our Junior class have started. They began on Saturday- January 23, 2021. This phenomenal opportunity offered to HSA students is free of charge. Saturday SAT Prep classes will begin promptly at 9:00 AM and end at 12:30 PM from January 23rd through April 10th.
We will be following Covid-19 protocols and safety procedures. Lunch will also be provided for our students. A special shout out to the high school staff for continuing showing their support to our students and helping them reach great success!
If you have any questions regarding the SAT Prep classes please contact:
Ms. Moss at moss@hsamckinley.org or
Mr. Kaya at kaya@hsamckinley.org 
Congratulations to our CONSEF Poster Winners
Way to go Lady Hawks!
Celebrating #SchoolChoiceWeek on January 24-30, 2021
We are definitely missing our students now more than ever! Thank you to our families for choosing HSA McKinley Park for their children! We appreciate being your TOP CHOICE of school and are so HAPPY you are all part of our family! Check out this #throwback picture of our second graders last year celebrating.
*COVID-19 CORNER*
Teacher Spotlight: Griffin Cann
This month's teacher spotlight shines on Griffin Cann!

We wanted to shine the spotlight on our only male elementary teacher in our K-5th Department. Mr. Cann is a second grade teacher and has been part of the HSA McKinley Park family since the very beginning in 2013.

Mr. Cann grew up in Oregon, IL and at an early age was inspired by his awesome male 5th grade teacher to become a teacher. Teaching was always something that he kept in the back of his mind while growing up. In high school, helping out in a second grade classroom solidified his passion and helped him decide that second grade was the age group he really wanted to work with as a teacher.

He studied at Northern Illinois University and before teaching at HSA, he taught 5th grade in CPS for a couple of years. At HSA, he helps teach and run the summer enrichment program that provides our teaching track high school students a chance to teach and work with elementary students. He also has coached HS Basketball and helped with our HS Cross Country teams at school. Outside of HSA he has worked for the Chicago Cubs running their summer camps for baseball instruction and enjoys playing golf.


We are so happy that we have Mr. Cann on staff, we appreciate all that he has contributed to our school especially since the very beginning!

Closing out with his favorite quote:
"Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world."
-Nelson Mandela
Any questions? concerns?
At HSA McKinley Park our top priority is the health and safety of students and staff, and we will continue to follow the guidance of local, state, and federal health officials in this evolving situation. Should you have any questions or concerns please email our school principal,
Mr. Seat Vedziovski at:
vedziovski@hsamckinley.org

Ms. Armouti, Outreach Coordinator:

Mrs. Vega, Outreach Coordinator:
Be sure to Follow us on Social Media for daily updates!
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